[Magdalen] (Katie Sherrod) A racist Atticus Finch is us, white people. All of us.

[Lynn Ronkainen]

a rather in-depth article I read *somewhere* said that the first version was 
rejected from a publishing house and the final version (i.e. first book 
published) was tweaked over and over again by the publisher and Lee. 
Apparently Lee had moved away 'up north' as a young adult, possibly to NYC, 
and wrote the book after visiting her hometown again within a few years of 
moving away.  One wonders if the book we all know was what might be a better 
seller.

I do think that this book's publication is not something that the sister 
would have approved of - also from everything I've read over time about Lee 
being a recluse and now perhaps somewhat senile.  It is what it is.
Lynn


website: www.ichthysdesigns.com

When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I have not a 
single bit of talent left and could say, "I used everything You gave me." 
attributed to Erma Bombeck
 "Either Freedom for all or stop talking about Freedom at all" from a talk 
by Richard Rohr

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jay Weigel" <jay.weigel at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 6:37 PM
To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
Subject: Re: [Magdalen] (Katie Sherrod) A racist Atticus Finch is us, white 
people. All of us.

> My take so far.....and I'm reserving andy judgment until I read the "new
> book" in its entirety....is that the "new book" is actually some kind of
> character study or something of that nature that the author did in order 
> to
> write the first book, since she apparently wrote it *before* she wrote
> TKAMB. She may not have meant for it to be published at all, particularly
> after the (to her) surprising success of TKAMB. But in any case, I think
> there's a lot of trash talk about it by people who haven't read the whole
> thing yet.
>
> On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 7:25 PM, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> an essay written by Katie Sherrod, a Fort Worth, TX Episcopalian, active
>> in the national church, writer and former columnist for the Ft. Worth
>> Telegraph.
>>
>>
>> http://wildernessgarden.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-racist-atticus-finch-is-us-white.html
>>
>> thought provoking read...
>>
>> I only last year read TKAMB for the first time. In reading about the
>> contents of the 'new book'... and reading in the papers about people who
>> think that publishing it was a manipulative move on a woman no longer
>> possessing her faculties and without protection since her older sister 
>> who
>> was a lawyer died a few years ago... I've pondered about the 'father
>> character' being, or seeming to be two different characters in the two
>> books.  Katie's essay reminds me that my view will always be a bit off.
>> Lynn
>>